The present invention relates to bag discharge apparatus and means for discharging a bag.
Previous machines for discharging flexible bulk containers comprise supporting the bulk container over a discharge chute sealing the neck to the discharge chute and untying a neck at the bottom of the container to allow material to flow out of the container through the discharge chute. However, the neck of the container is often narrow and the neck can tend to stay bunched up once the neck is untied and impede the effective discharge of material. This is particularly the case where a thin extremely flexible and disposable liner bag is located within a heavy reuseable outer bag.
Previous bag discharge machines have also suspended the bag from a support frame with the frame then being supported on spring biased poles and with the bottom of the bag being partially supported on a conical plate. As the weight of the bag on the support frame decreases during discharge spring means acting on the poles biases those poles and the frame support upwardly to assist in lengthening the main extent of the bag and allowing the bag base to drop downwards and therefore assist in causing material to leave the bag. However, the spring means are dependent upon the weight of material in the bag and, as that weight slowly decreases, the spring means slowly raises the bag to a limited extent and in a gradual manner. Furthermore the material in the bag can lock the base of the bag in position to act to stop the springs effectively raising the bag base thereby adversely affecting discharge. Accordingly, material can still tend to remain stacked up within the container without being effectively and smoothly discharged.